School
School is all but over as exams are done and now it’s just finalizing te grades. Since I work at one of the better universities in the country (a fact of which I am honoured), the grading is necessarily super tough. A lot of these kids put in a lot of work but the school has a policy on how many students can get As, Bs, and so on. As a result, us teachers have to be very strict when it comes to grading their essays. I suppose Chinese universities are fighting a stigma of inflated grades but then I come here and see what sort of work these kids are doing and it’s almost defeating to try to give them a good mark. Why? The curve. If there are too many high marks the bar just gets set even higher than before. It’s like running down a hallway that never ends, like in House of Leaves or in a Kubrick movie.
Taking on the “Freshmen Fifteen”
Stopped running but have started kickboxing again. Much better and more immersive than simply running around the track. I find with the calisthenics and aerobic work out, I can’t get distracted. The classes (mostly of guys) did subtract another 1200RMB from my bank account but it’ll at least help to get rid of some of this “freshman fifteen” I’ve put on over the last year.
The Innocents Abroad
Picked up a couple other books the other day. Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad, an account of his ship journey from New York to Jordan and back, and a finance book, The Global Expatriate’s Guide to Investing, which I bought because it wasn’t so US-expat focused and, instead, focuses on a much more global spectrum of expats, from Canadians to South Africans. Anyway, I’ve tried to read Twain’s book before on computer to no avail and so I bought the hard copy in an effort to give it another chance. It seems to have worked. I’ve neglected much of my other reading as I spend time with Mr. Twain instead.
I think The Innocents Abroad is the first Mark Twain book I’ve read since high school when we were forced to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and/or Tom Sawyer (I can’t remember which one we read). It’s an interesting read full of Twain’s wit and humour, much different from Paul Theroux’s travelogues. Much like Herodotus, Twain seems to have a boyish wonder about travel and aspirations to fulfill a lifelong dream of such an excursion. This is made no more apparent than when he visits Paris with the hope to be shaved in an elegant parlour only to be “skinned” (as he puts it) at the hands of a wig-maker. He focuses on the details, especially how things go wrong, instead of the cheery “I found my true love” or “buy this” that so many modern travelogues puke out these days.
An update on my Chinese language progress
I haven’t updated you on my Chinese progress lately but suffice it to say it’s coming along much better than I thought I would. When I initially came to China 9 months ago I can’t say I was all too enthused about the prospect of learning yet another language. Mandarin is #7 on my list of attempted languages to learn and I can say that I am tired of the process. Not just of learning, but the humility that comes with learning a new language. Sometimes it’s better just not to know the local language so you can simply play the role of an idiot without awareness of what the people around you are saying. However, my trip to Shanghai proved that I have at least basic conversation abilities about job, country, family, what I did or will do today, etc.
One of the difficulties I’m having is finding a language partner, which seems absurd to say but it is no less the truth. My first Chinese teacher put classes at odd times such as at lunch time or right after evening class (6 pm). Moreover, it was with some of the other teachers here and so conversation usually happened in English. Next, one of the students wanted to tutor me and that lasted all of two classes before she started inviting her friends to come around to make conversation (in English) and generally laugh at my Chinese pronunciation. Finally, I found a teacher who was just finishing her graduate degree in teaching Chinese as a foreign language and she was good at working with my problems. However, towards the end of the semester it was apparent that she didn’t really want to teach Chinese any more and was instead sad about being single and, of all things, moving to Germany. And so, as it stands now, I have yet another conversation partner who giggles every time she understands a tough word I say in English and who wants to teach me from my textbook but doesn’t really know how; she is falling into the trap of “I speak Chinese therefor I can teach you,” that great affliction of native speakers all over the world.
I do want to end on an upbeat note and clarify that I’m not blaming these teachers for my progress (or lack thereof) of my Chinese. Rather, in addition to my own hesitation on learning the language I’ve found it difficult to find someone to work with to improve my language skills because it does require a lot of patience to endure and correct the mistakes of a teacher. An experience that I’m used to both as a student and a teacher of languages.
Dragon Boat Festival Video
Posted a few new videos and one you’ll find below. Taken in Yanqing county, about 2 hours north of Beijing. I ventured up that way for the Duanwu Festival, more commonly known as the Dragon Boat Festival… and completely missed the dragon boat races. The video below is one of the dance performances just before the awards ceremony. Maybe next year I’ll get there, or wherever the boat races are held, on time.
Duanwu Festival Dance
[youtube]https://youtu.be/fBuAgCZwiZo[/youtube]